The Canadian dollar ended Friday higher against most of its major peers as employment data came out much better than was predicted by analysts, making Canadian assets more appealing to investors. The currency also advanced versus the US dollar, but later erased the gain.
The Canadian employment grew by 50,700 in February from January, when it declined by 21,900. Analysts have predicted much smaller growth by 7,800. The unemployment rate stayed at 7.0 percent, while specialists have feared that it might increase to 7.1 percent.
A separate report showed that housing starts rose by 180,719 in February. The favorable Friday’s macroeconomic data allowed the loonie to end the week on a positive note.
USD/CAD fell from 1.0291 to 1.0232, but bounced and closed virtually unchanged at 1.0289. At the same time, EUR/CAD fell from 1.3498 to 1.3373, while CAD/JPY advanced from 92.06 to 93.30.
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